ETHICS & COMPLIANCE
THE POWER OF POSITIVITY

In this episode of Creativity & Compliance, Tom & Ronnie talk about positivity, i.e. the transformational effects that a positive, proactive, preventative approach can have on an ethics & compliance program.

We’re all well aware that compliance has a bit of a reputational problem. To an employee, there is some toxicity to that word, which undermines our ability to reach, engage and break through. In comedy terms we’d say, “you’re not playing to a warm room.” We have to recognize that you are showing up to a hostile or apathetic audience. We need to dig out of this hole.

The Power of Positive, Proactive, Preventative Approach
If we want to shift the dynamic than we need to ensure that we’re actually having a positive impact. We need to be advisors and coaches. We need to add value and be solutions oriented. We need to be playful, positive and dare we say…fun! When we talk about harnessing the power of positivity, to dig out of this hole, we need to look at all the different ways we interact with the business.

• Individual Communication Skills – E&C professionals can benefit from working on their soft skills – communication, collaboration, active listening are all muscles that can be built through practice. (Improv & theatrical training can help!) We want the business to issue spot and proactively come to us to strategize solutions, not hide their problems and then bring us messes. To do this we need to communicate in ways that positions ourselves as a trusted, helpful resource. People won’t go to the office of “No.” Avoid the finger-wag. Listen, offer up solutions and try to solve problems together.

• E&C Branding – Take a look at the name of the department, your logo, your tagline. If you have a bad brand…change it! We did a separate podcast on this. You can check that out here.  Podcast – Rebranding Ethics & Compliance…A Conversation with Yum!

• Intranet Page & Newsletters – Take a look at your Ethics & Compliance intranet page and newsletters. Is your E&C homepage well organized? Is it easy to find things? Does it offer solutions? Do your newsletters offer helpful tips? Does it include interesting stories that employees might want to read? Is there some reward that will entice them to go there…like a short, fun video?

• The Code & Policies – Take a look at your Code of Conduct and Policy Portal – Is it written by lawyers pushing policies or does it explain what’s expected in short, simple actionable language. Does it include links to relevant, interesting stories, examples, videos? Just having stock photography and multiple font colors is not enough.

• Training  – Are you still pushing out long, bloated, boring training and then sending out multiple, threatening reminders to ensure you get 100% completion rates? OMG, we’re obsessed with completion rates…but please recognize that this metric has nothing to do with learning. In fact, these annoying trainings do more harm then good, because it feels like a check-the-box activity which seeds the idea that it’ snot important. Presenting shorter, more targeted micro-learning that has some entertainment value can help.

• Communications – Short, playful, positive, frequent communications that drive traffic to the welcoming, positive helpful resources discussed above, can help shift the dynamic. It’s advertising and marketing 101. To change the culture of compliance, we need to train less and communicate more…and communicate in ways that are positive, playful and solutions oriented. Use more carrot than stick. Short and entertaining content can help you get more airtime and exposure which can increase your visibility and shift the dynamic faster.

We need to look at all our touchpoints to ensure that they are conveying the message that the program is the positive, welcoming, supportive and helpful resource that you are. Positive, proactive and preventative means investing in a regular drumbeat of training and communications that are short, positive, action oriented and helpful. If those training and communications are short and have some entertainment value, you can get airtime and exposure on more training and comms channels and can increase the frequency of those messages, without message fatigue. Life is easier when the business enjoys hearing from you. It’s all about influence, so communicate colorfully!